The Lawfare Podcast

Emergency Edition: Trump Indicted in Fulton County, Georgia

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, August 14th, former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County for his alleged attempts to manipulate the elector...

Scheduling Update: Lawfare Live on Georgia Indictment

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The district attorney for Fulton Co., Georgia, issued a fourth criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump late last night, for crimes relati...

Roger Parloff on Trump’s Vowed DC Trial Venue Change

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Aug. 6 former President Donald Trump announced on social media that he would “immediately” seek a “venue change ... out [of] D.C.”...

Rational Security: The “Dog Days” Edition

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott beat back the heat to dig into the week's big national security news stories, including:“ECOWAShed?” We are now...

Lawfare Archive: Lawrence Douglas on Presidential Election Concessions

12 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From June 16, 2020: The 2020 presidential election is less than five months away. As the election inches closer and closer, concerns have grown about ...

Does Trump Have to Attend His Own Trials?

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former President Trump has been arguing for some time now that the criminal charges he’s facing in New York, Florida, and D.C. are politically motiv...

Chatter: Covering the Justice Department During and After Trump, with Katie Benner

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Benner is a features writer for the New York Times, who covered the Justice Department for a number of years beginning in 2017. In a wide-rangin...

Can We Build a Trustworthy Future Web?

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web was put together by the Atlantic Council for a sprint study of the future of trust and safety in the ever-...

Asaf Lubin on Regulating Commercial Spyware

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The increasingly pervasive use and abuse of spyware by governments around the world has led to calls for regulation and even outright bans. How should...

Can Torture Evidence Be Used at Guantanamo Bay? 

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the life sentence of a Yemini national serving out his time at the Guantanamo Ba...

Not Your Grandparents’ Far-Right Extremists

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the last year, the ADL and GLAAD tracked at least 356 incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism in the U.S. This marks an alarming rise over the ...

Rational Security: The “Third Time’s a Charm” Edition

06 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by co-host emeritus Benjamin Wittes to talk through the week's YUGE national secur...

Lawfare Archive: The Aftermath: Day Zero, Ground Zero

05 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the indictment and arraignment of former President Donald Trump this past week, Jan. 6 and its aftermath are very much on people's minds. So for ...

A ‘New Era in Police Reform?’ with Christy Lopez

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On July 27, the Justice Department announced a sprawling civil rights investigation, also known as a pattern or practice investigation, into the ...

Chatter: The Story of Reality Winner with Tina Satter

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2017, FBI agents arrived at the home of Reality Winner, a translator working for the NSA, to question her about an unauthorized leak of classi...

What Ukraine Tells Us About the Future of War

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past eighteen months, Ukraine has served as the stage for a proxy battle between superpowers, with the invading Russians on one side and a U....

Emergency Edition: The Trump Jan. 6 Indictment

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday, a D.C. grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump for a range of crimes that all involve the attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of powe...

Bringing Digital Evidence into the Courtroom

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In last month’s landmark settlement, the City of New York agreed to pay over $13 million to a group of 1,380 protestors who “were arrested and/or ...

Making Sense of the UFO Hearing with Shane Harris

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This past week, the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a spirited hearing on an unusual topic: Un...

Rational Security: The “Norpett Returns” Edition

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by the long absent Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett to talk through the wee...

Lawfare Archive: Cristina Rodríguez and Adam Cox on 'The President and Immigration Law'

29 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From December 7, 2020: Jack Goldsmith spoke with Adam Cox and Christina Rodríguez, the authors of "The President and Immigration Law," a new book abo...

Josh Geltzer on 702 Reauthorization

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Joshua Geltzer is the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor at the White House, part of the National Security Council staff. He is the president's point pe...

Chatter: Science Fiction and International Relations with Stephen Dyson

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Creators of science fiction movies and television shows often build worlds with at least some attention to governance systems and international (or in...

Brazil’s Search for Accountability After Jan. 8

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Brazil’s highest electoral court found that former President Jair Bolsonaro had abused his political power in the 2022 elections because...

The Judicial Revolution Is Here

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first phase of Israel's judicial overhaul is now law. Huge numbers of people are in the streets, reservists are resigning, the stock market is tan...

Can Trump Be Tried in Four Places at Once?

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former President Trump is facing criminal charges in Florida and New York, and indictments are reportedly likely in Fulton County, Georgia, and Washin...

The Justice Department Appeals Oath Keepers Sentences

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On July 12, the Justice Department appealed the sentences of seven Oath Keepers convicted for Jan. 6-related crimes. Five have been convicted of sedit...

Rational Security: The “Five Dollar Footlong-Gate” Edition

23 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott got together to NOT talk about that ONE big story that's not quite ripe yet. (You know the one...

Lawfare Archive: Is Trump Creating a Deep State?

22 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From November 18, 2020: In the waning days of his administration, the president has attempted to install a political loyalist as General Counsel of th...

Asaf Lubin on Cyber Espionage and International Law

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On June 16, the U.S. State Department discovered unauthorized access to its Exchange Online email services and reported it to Microsoft. Almost a mont...

Chatter: National Security Insights from Board Games with Volko Ruhnke

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gaming might seem far removed from national security, but Volko Ruhnke's experience proves otherwise. During his career as an intelligence analyst and...

Congress Investigates January 6 ... Again

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, the majority staff of the Senate Rules and Governmental Affairs Committee released a report entitled “Planned in Plain Sight: A Review o...

A Big Day in Trump Accountability

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It was a big day in the legal travails of Donald Trump. We awoke this morning to news from the former president himself that he had received another t...

Ukrainians Hit the Kerch Bridge ... Again

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It was a busy weekend in the waters off of Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainians hit—for the second time—the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Russian...

Pam Samuelson on Copyright's Threat to Generative AI

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The only thing more impressive than the performance of generative AI systems like GPT-4 and Stable Diffusion is the sheer volume of training data that...

Rational Security: The “Long Middle Finger of Europe” Edition

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine, to talk through the week’s big natsec ne...

Lawfare Archive: Kyle Langvardt on Platform Speech and the First Amendment

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From December 8, 2020: On Monday, Lawfare released the first paper in its "The Digital Social Contract" paper series. For each paper, Alan R...

Eric Adamson on the NATO Summit

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, just wrapped up, and the big news is that Sweden is in, and Ukraine is not. Eric Adamson of the Atlantic Counci...

Chatter: Renaming Military Bases and Principled Conservatism with Kori Schake

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kori Schake is the Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute. She has also worked in policy positions at the State D...

Catching Up on the Trump Trials

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, Donald J. Trump became the first former president to be criminally indicted. A few months later, he became the first former preside...

A Louisiana Judge's Dramatic Jawboning Decision

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On July 4, a federal judge in Louisiana issued one of the most dramatic First Amendment rulings in recent memory. The case involves a variety of indiv...

Charl van der Walt on Cyber Extortion

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are the latest trends in the ransomware-as-a-service ecosystem? Since at least May 27, the CL0P ransomware gang has been exploiting a previously ...

Eric Goldstein of DHS on All Matters Cyber

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Goldstein is the Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, having served previ...

Rational Security: The “BANG! POW! SPARKLE!” Edition

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott sat down to talk over the week's post-Independence Day national security news, including:“Oy...

Lawfare Archive: Daniel Reisner on Law, Security, and Peace in the Middle East

08 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From January 17, 2015: This week, Ben and Matt Waxman sat down with Daniel Reisner, former head of the International Law Branch of the Israe...

But Her Emails!

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“But what about Hillary Clinton's emails,” a thousand voices have shouted since the Trump Mar-a-Lago indictment came down. It's not just politicia...

Chatter: Hockey, Global Politics, and Freedom with Ethan Scheiner

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Political scientist Ethan Scheiner appeared on Chatter in early 2022, right before the Olympics in Beijing, to talk about the fascinating intersection...

Ass’t Treasury Secretary Paul Rosen on the CFIUS Process

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, is one of the most important national security offices that you have probably neve...

The Legal Arguments Behind Mike Pence’s January 6 Grand Jury Testimony

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In April, former Vice President Mike Pence testified before a federal grand jury under subpoena as part of the special counsel’s investigation into ...

Lawfare Archive: Nate Persily and Alex Stamos on Securing American Elections

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From June 11, 2019: More than two years after the 2016 presidential election, new information continues to seep into the public about the extent of Ru...

Tim Wu on AI Regulation

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Until this year, Tim Wu was Special Assistant to President Biden for competition and tech policy. One of the leading thinkers in progressive approach ...

Rational Security: The “Mutiny in the Kitchen” Edition

02 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by their colleague and think-tank neighbor, Russia/Ukraine expert Eric Ciaramella,...

Lawfare Archive: Foreign Interference... It's Happening

01 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From October 23, 2020: It's been a wild couple of days of disinformation in the electoral context. Intelligence community officials are warning about ...

Nosmot Gbadamosi on South Africa’s ‘Putin Problem’

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Thursday, South Africa’s Department of International Relations confirmed it would host the 15th BRICS Summit in August. Normally, this wouldn’t...

Chatter: Hacker Movies with Scott Shapiro

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Shane sits down with law professor and hacker historian Scott Shapiro to rant, and rave, about hacker movies. From War Games to t...

Talking Transparency With Meta’s Nick Clegg

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How much transparency do big technology companies owe to their users? The question has become pointed in recent years as users, researchers, and polit...

Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United States in the early 21st century has been involved in a so-called “forever” war involving military threats, interventions, occupations,...

What the Hell Happened in Russia?

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It was a heck of a weekend in Russia. There was an insurrection, kind of? A coup, sort of? A column of troops led by Wagner chieftain Yevgeny Prigozhi...

Bulelani Jili on Africa’s Demand for and Adoption of Chinese Surveillance Technologies

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Countries across Africa are procuring and employing surveillance tools from China. This trend is a product of China’s diplomatic strategy, its techn...

Rational Security: The “Even Stephan” Edition

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by UVA Law Professor Paul Stephan to talk through the close-calls in this week’s...

Lawfare Archive: Austin Evers and Mike Stern on Congressional Oversight

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From July 9, 2019: President Trump has declared that he will fight “all the subpoenas” coming from Congress and has claimed “absolute immunity”...

Large Language Negligence

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As large language models like ChatGPT play an increasingly important role in our society, there will no doubt be examples of them causing harm. Lawsui...

Chatter: Covering the January 6th Trials with Roger Parloff

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since joining Lawfare in November 2021, Roger Parloff has been a constant presence at the January 6th trials. Now based in Washington, D.C, he had, ea...

Richard Gowan on the U.S. Push for UN Security Council Reform

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the United Nations, Russia's obstruction of efforts to respond to its invasion of Ukraine is finally sparking serious interest in an issue that has...

Protests, the Police, and the Press

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn Cole, a Pulitzer-Prize winning staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times, has covered wars and other conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel...

Stephanie Pell and Brian Kalt on How the Trump Indictment Will Affect the Trump Campaign and the Potential Trump Presidency

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last November, President Trump became candidate Trump when he formally announced his campaign to retake the White House in 2024. And when, earlier thi...

Lawfare Archive: What to Make of the Mueller Report

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From April 19, 2019: A redacted version of the 448-page Mueller report dropped yesterday, and there’s a lot to say about it. In this Special Edition...

Rational Security: The “You Want Her in The Line—You NEED Her in The Line” Edition

18 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by Lawfare Legal Fellow Anna Bower fresh from the Miami court system to ...

Lawfare Archive: Preserving Justice Department Independence

17 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From April 28, 2018: On Thursday, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates hosted a conference at Georgetown Law on the future of American...

Michael Gerrard on Held v. Montana

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, 16 young plaintiffs—between the ages of 5 and 22—walked into a packed courtroom in Helena, Montana, to sue their government. At is...

Chatter: Water, Security, and Conflict with Peter Gleick

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Water, essential to the emergence and endurance of life on Earth, has both spurred technological advances and driven many types of conflict. For the f...

We Need To Talk About the Espionage Act

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first 31 counts of the Trump Mar-a-Lago indictment all are under the Espionage Act, which has led to a lot of confusion because Trump is not accus...

Debriefing with Anna Bower

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday in Miami, FL, in connection with the Mar-a-Lago indictment. Lawfare's Fulton County Correspondent Anna Bower was in...

Read With Me: The Trump Indictment

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes had a conversation on Read With Me, a by-subscription-only podcast associated with Ben’s Subst...

Brian Greer on Silent Witnesses

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The indictment filed last week against former President Donald Trump involves hundreds of classified documents, and the first 31 charges involve misha...

Rational Security: The “Air Quality Fuchsia” Edition

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott braved the haze to talk through the week’s (very) big national security news stories, includ...

Lawfare Archive: Ben Buchanan on 'The Hacker and the State'

10 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From February 26, 2020: Ben Buchanan is a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a scholar on cybersecurity and statecra...

Emergency Podcast: Former President Trump Indicted in Mar-A-Lago Probe

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On June 8, former President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he has been indicted in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into t...

Justin Sherman on Regulating the Data Broker Industry

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The data broker industry and its role in the digital economy is under scrutiny from Congress. Lawfare Senior Editor Stephanie Pell sat down with Justi...

Chatter: Genealogy and Intelligence Analysis with Lisa Maddox

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shane and David have hosted many former intelligence officers, mostly of the American variety, during more than 80 episodes so far on Chatter. But, un...

Dam Breaks and Pipeline Bombings

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A large dam on the Dnipro River has been destroyed, causing massive flooding and a dangerous environmental catastrophe in southern Ukraine. The Ukrain...

How is Lula Doing? 

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On January 1, 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as president of Brazil. A week later, insurrectionists in Brazil stormed government buildi...

Catching up with Jack Smith's Mar-A-Lago Investigation

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On May 31, CNN reported that federal prosecutors investigating the unlawful removal of classified documents from the White House to Donald Trump’s M...

Gabe Rottman on the Justice Department's New Guidelines on Press Subpoenas

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's been about six months since the Attorney General issued new guidelines on compulsory process to members of the press in criminal and national sec...

Rational Security: The “Pun Moll” Edition

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by their Brookings and Lawfare colleague Molly Reynolds to talk all things Congress in the we...

Lawfare Archive: Rosa Brooks on ‘How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything’

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From October 1, 2016: At this week's Hoover Book Soiree, Rosa Brooks joined Benjamin Wittes to talk about her new book, “How Everything Became ...

Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is often said that “Russia is a country with an unpredictable past.” Such distortions of history can lead to trouble, as the world witnessed la...

Chatter: Information Ecology with Alicia Wanless

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alicia Wanless is one of the pioneers of the idea of information ecology, the notion that we should think about information and disinformation as part...

The Wagner Group, Bakhmut, and a New Phase in the Ukraine War

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The war in Ukraine is approaching a pivotal moment. Russia remains in control of the hotly contested city of Bakhmut. But the ruthlessly effective mer...

Erdoğan Wins Reelection in Turkey

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Sunday, May 28, Turkey held a bitterly contested run-off election, with incumbent presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan winning reelection a...

Tim Mak on The Counteroffensive

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Mak was an NPR reporter in Kyiv since the beginning of the full-scale invasion last year. He recently stepped down and started his own Substack fr...

Lawfare Archive: Shaun Walker on Russia's Long Hangover

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From January 20, 2018: This week on the Lawfare Podcast, the Guardian's Moscow correspondent Shaun Walker joined special guest host Alina Polyako...

Chatter: Popular Presidential Communication with Anne Pluta

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the birth of the republic, American presidents have communicated with the public in one form or another. The frequency and exact nature of such e...

Lawfare Archive: Michelle Melton on Climate Change as a National Security Threat

27 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From April 16, 2019: Since November, Lawfare Contributor Michelle Melton has run a series on our website about Climate Change and National S...

Roger Parloff on the Oath Keeper Sentences

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thursday was sentencing day for some senior Oath Keepers, and Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff spent the day in court listening to and watching the...

Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a bomb built by Timothy McVeigh exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. ...

The Big Internet Case That Wasn't

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Supreme Court last week issued the biggest opinion in the history of the internet—except that it didn’t. Rather, it issued an opinion in a cas...

The Dark History of the Information Age

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hacking and cybersecurity are evergreen issues, in the news and on Lawfare. Scott Shapiro, the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of ...

Patrick Weil on ‘The Madman in the White House’

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson came out in opposition to a compromise that would have resulted in Senate ratification of the Versailles Tr...

Rational Security: The “Low Down Dirty Shane” Edition

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Rational Security, Alan and Scott were joined by co-host emeritus (and Washington Post star reporter) Shane Harris to talk over the week'...